Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Government (CREW), is a nonprofit legal watchdog group whose goal is to reduce the influence of money in politics. They use “aggressive legal action, in-depth research, and bold communications to reduce the influence of money in politics and help foster a government that is ethical and accountable.” (http://www.citizensforethics.org/who-we-are/)

CREW has filed a lawsuit in federal court over what it believes are violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution – Article 1, Section 9.This Constitutional provision prohibits government officials from receiving gifts, titles, and payments from foreign governments. The lawsuit states:

“Never before have the people of the United States elected a President with business interests as vast, complicated, and secret as those of Donald J. Trump. Now that he has been sworn into office as the 45th President of the United States, those business interests are creating countless conflicts of interest, as well as unprecedented influence by foreign governments, and have resulted and will further result in numerous violations of Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, the “Foreign Emoluments Clause.”“These violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause pose a grave threat to the United States and its citizens. As the Framers were aware, private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic. The Foreign Emoluments Clause was forged of the Framers’ hard-won wisdom. It is no relic of a bygone era, but rather an expression of insight into the nature of the human condition and the preconditions of self-governance. And applied to Donald J. Trump’s diverse dealings, the text and purpose of the Foreign Emoluments Clause speak as one: this cannot be allowed.”The entire lawsuit can be found here.http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/23140054/CREW-DJT-Final.pdf

Trump’s Advisory Committee Violates FACA​In addition to the lawsuit against President Donald Trump, CREW has sent as letter to White House Counsel Donald McGahn, requesting that McGahn take necessary steps to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). President Trump’s use of an advisory committee composed of both federal employees and non-governmental individuals to obtain advice on potential Supreme Court justice nominations appears to violate FACA. To comply with FACA, the committee’s records, reports, transcripts, minutes, appendices, working papers, drafts, studies, agenda, and other documents need to be made publicly available.The CREW letter to White House Counsel McGahn can be found here.http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/01203132/DOC170201-20170201152716.pdfA pdf of the letter can be found at the end of this article.